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UK set for major flooding as Andy Burnham issues post-wildfire warning

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has warned that UK flooding could follow the wildfires sweeping the country, as he visited the scene of a fire in Stourbridge in the West Midlands

['We need more clean energy']

'We need more clean energy'(Image: WPA Pool, Getty Images)

Andy Burnham has warned that flooding could follow the wildfires currently ravaging the country. The Prime Minister issued this warning during his visit to the site of a fire in Stourbridge, West Midlands, where locals were compelled to evacuate.

A total of 54 individuals have received treatment from paramedics, including 19 who were hospitalised, following wildfires erupting across the region.

Addressing the media, the Prime Minister praised the efforts of firefighters and added: "We might be in for a wet autumn and winter straight after this, because of El Nino and some of the issues there, which was reported to Cobra. So, after fire could come floods.

[A warning has been issued]

A warning has been issued(Image: WPA Pool, Getty Images)

"We have to face up to the changing climate. I think we need a different debate about that. There's no point denying where we are. We need to face up to it. We need more clean energy. We need to see that transition accelerate. Those are all of the issues that, you know, are right now in discussion.

"But the Cobra meeting earlier this week, I think has enabled us to mobilise resource today to individuals, to communities, and to our fire and rescue services, and we're very, very grateful to them."

Mr Burnham later informed the BBC that the Met Office anticipates the dry spell will persist until the end of September, when some rainfall is expected. He also informed the broadcaster: "Maybe some rainfall, but not as much as we need, and then we are heading straight into a very, very wet latter part of the year, where the risk of flooding will be maybe greater because of the dry ground conditions.

"At the moment, fire and rescue services are not set up for flooding properly, and again, these are questions that I have to take away, and you know I won't shy away from them."

Grahame Madge, Met Office climate spokesman, stated that it was a "tremendously tricky job" to determine which climate drivers will be the most influential in the upcoming autumn and winter.

Mr Madge told the Press Association: "But the Prime Minister is perfectly right in what he said, in terms of there is a known association between strong El Nino events and a wet autumn. It's important to highlight that El Nino is a pattern of natural climate variability it's not linked to climate change per se. It can accentuate other climate signals, such as a warmer atmosphere, it can hold more moisture, all of that, but it's not an artefact of climate change itself."

Speaking about the complexity of forecasting weather months ahead, he added: "The challenge for forecasters is the fact that there are a number of competing drivers.

"Another big driver of what happens in autumn in the North Atlantic is what's happening in the tropical Atlantic with the hurricane season. So, our forecasters have got an extremely difficult job of trying to tease out all those different drivers and work out which one will weigh out."

Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat MP who chairs the Commons environment committee, expressed his concern to the Press Association on Friday about the current drought, describing it as "desperately worrying". However, he also highlighted the potential impact of flooding on the UK's food security.

Speaking to PA, he said: "Water engineers will always tell you that Britain has a water management problem, not a water resilience problem. That means that we're not good at harvesting it when we've got too much of it, and then we keep losing too much of it when we've not got enough of it.

"From the point of view of food security, food production, fields in the late winter and early spring will be under a foot of water, which the Environment Agency then pumps out to sea, and that water is not then available for use later in the year when farmers need it for irrigating crops or providing food for livestock."

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